Hallelujah

Record Details

Artist

Leonard Cohen

Release

2016

Genre

Classical Music, Guitar

Record Tracklist

Hallelujah-:-- / 5:54

It was Jeff Buckley’s rendition of this piece that sent chills down my spine and made me start fiddling with it on the guitar (and borrowing heavily from others) until this arrangement came to fruition.

I’m quite proud of it. I need to re-record it but I’m getting good feedback and wanted to share it with you.

A little history: Cohen released Hallelujah in 1984 with very limited success. His original tempo of 12/8 evoked both waltz and gospel music. John Cale did an uptempo cover in 1991 and it inspired Jeff Buckley to do his ultimate version in 2008 that sent him to #1 on Billboard’s charts.

In its final form, Hallelujah is a beautiful love song with references to the Old Testament most notably evoking the stories of Samson and traitorous Delilah (“she cut your hair”) as well as the adulterous King David and Bathsheba (“you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you”).